*[Wie streiten uns oft.]
One of the sights in Neuenbuerg is the cemetery and the Jewish headstones in it. These are not really old. One (or more) clearly says 1945. Since the village is very Catholic (the only church in the village is Catholic), it leads one to wonder how the Jewish gravestones got there.
I have reported before but I will repeat the essence of two stories told to me by two people. Both of these people were, in a sense, victims. My first story was told by a young boy who was in the village in April of 1945. One afternoon, several trucks arrived, led by a French officer. The residents were told that they had 15 minutes to leave the village. They could take whatever of their possessions they could carry out. The boy and his aunt walked to Oberoewisheim taking a bicycle and as much as they could carry. They stayed with relatives in Oberoewisheim. On the way out of the village, they saw several trucks carrying people who looked very weak and sick. They learned that these people had been rescued from a labor camp. Many of these people did not live long. When the original families in the village were allowed to return, they found that all of their possessions that they had left behind were gone. The “boy” who told me this now lives in Canada.
The second story was told to me by one the people who was moved to Neuenbuerg from a labor camp. He was a young eastern European Jew who had survived a series of labor camps in part due to the kindness of some German citizens. Though Neuenbuerg was intended to be a place where the prisoners could be cured, many of them were in such poor health that they did not live. Not all of the people from the labor camp were Jewish. Some of the non-Jewish people had opposed the German government.
Eventually, those that did survive and regain their strength, were distributed around Europe according to their origins. The “boy” telling me this story had some difficulty at this point as his home was now occupied by the Russians. He managed to escape this fate and eventually he emigrated to the United States where he works for peace in the world, especially in the Middle East.
If the convalescents in the village did not live, they were buried in the local cemetery. Later, some relatives or organizations were able to trace the fate of these people and they put up the gravestones. Probably, the gravestones will be left permanently as a memorial and not recycled as they normally are in Germany.
Neuenbuerg is on the very edge of a region that was formerly controlled by the Bishops of Speyer. Just down the road about two miles, perhaps less, is Oberoewisheim where the Protestants (generally Lutherans, but not all) who lived in Neuenbuerg went to church. For a long period of time, the church book in Oberoewisheim was divided into two parts, one for each village.
*[We argue a lot.]
(23 Mar 07)
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.